The Route

The Route

Half & Full Growler Course Map & Profile

The Original Growler is for experienced mountain bikers only and takes place in rugged, isolated backcountry terrain. While your safety is our priority and we have a comprehensive EMS plan that includes experienced and trained personnel, responding to and evacuating an injured or ill rider will be time consuming and difficult. Riders must possess the skills and judgment necessary to assess difficult and challenging trails and roads and negotiate them in a safely. NO BEGINNERS, PLEASE!

For comparison, the general character and difficulty of the trails and roads in the Original Growler is similar to those of the BLM Mack Ridge Trail System near Fruita, CO: Mary’s Loop, Lion’s Loop, Horsethief Loop, Steve’s Loop, etc.

Each day of racing at the 2018 Original Growler is capped at 350 riders. We could start 500 or more but there’s a ton of singletrack out there, much of it either fast or technical. Too many riders on course at once is not conducive to quality racing and riding. Even so, the Growler will bottleneck early in the race. Please be patient, respectful and smart if you find yourself at a standstill. Riding off of the trail to pass is not cool. Also, if a gap opens in front of you and you look back and notice that you are the engine of a long train of riders, please step off of your bike, move over and let these faster riders by.

Both days of racing will start in downtown Gunnison by shotgun blasts. For 2018, we will be racing the Growler course CLOCKWISE!

NOTE: Course profiles below are for 2018. Growler Lap 1 is the entire Half Growler, the 1st lap of the Full Growler and Sunday’s Half. Growler Lap 2 is the second lap of the Full Growler only. Vertical is around 3,000 to 4,000 feet per lap (but it might feel like more!) depending on what kind of machine is counting it.